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Summer Brain Workouts
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"None of our friends have to do school work while school is closed!" my kids complained. "Why do we?"
"You don't want your brains to turn into mush, do you?" I replied. It's what I say every summer when I present them with activities that keep their minds sharp.
I'm the kind of mom who, on a rainy Saturday afternoon, will say, "Turn off the video games. Let's play Scrabble." I purchase rap music CDs that contain SAT vocabulary words and load them onto my kids' MP3 players. My kids know that anyone sitting in the back seat of the car is a captive audience and will probably be asked to solve spontaneous math problems. So there's no way I'm going to let an entire summer pass without a few opportunties to learn.
Here are some of the educational (but fun!) activities our kids have done during the long months between when school lets out and reconvenes:
This summer, I have a special surprise for them. In addition to the math and language activities they usually do, I picked up a game they can play on our computer that will teach them how to type!
Sometimes Sabrina and Jake balk when I first present them with summertime educational activities, but once they get into them, they wind up enjoying themselves -- especially on those boring days when the kids say they have "nothing to do."
Member Comments On…
Summer Brain Workouts
Looking for a great typing program?
Typing Instructor for kids II is the best typing program I've seen, PERIOD. I borrowed it from my public library and installed it on our family computer - WE ALL USE IT! A real time image of moving hands on a keyboard help associate the requested letters/words to be typed with hands possitioned properly on a keyboard and prevents your child from bad habits like looking down at his/her fingers all the time. My four and five year olds are amazing typists now after only a few weeks. The lessons begin with learning four keys at a time, there's a drill where you copy letter for letter what's on the screen, then once you've accomplished a goal WPM & accuracy rate, you get to practice the keys you have learned in various fun games. WAY FUN! It's not super old, so it may still be available for purchase, or see if your library has it and give it a try like we did :)
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I love your ideas. My 8-year-old gets bored, so I try to keep her busy with activities to entertain her, so learning is a bonus! I would LOVE to know what the game is that teaches them to type!
Corinna www.myscrapbooklife.com
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My kids are only 3 and 6, but that doesn't stop us from turning everything we can into a learning experience. My husband is a college professor and I teach preschool Spanish, so we both are a little biased towards summer mental exercise! I have the workbooks, but I try to get the kids out of the house as they respond more. I ask my 6 year old to read animal names at the zoo, road signs on day trips, and to add up the cost of snacks/lunch. I ask my son how many animals are there, what color are they? What sounds do they make. Anything to keep those brain cells working!
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Using the self checkout at the grocery for the kids to subtract coupon amounts from the total before the checkout assistant enters them, and an activity I call "Bath Math" where I use squirty foam soap to do math using small squirts on the bath walls or side of bath as a sort of abacus to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, are great math opportunities. The discarded soap squirts get applied to the kids - BONUS!
Trivia, vocabulary, strategic (like checkers, othello, & 3D Sudoku) games "trick" the kids into exercising their brains too.
We also use our library's online search, place holds, then pick up educational videos, books, and/or education software. Saves $$$.
Lastly, my husband and I keep our own reading materials, puzzles, and challenging games where our kids can see we use them. Don't forget to exercise your brains too, Moms and Dads, your example is what will keep your children seeking their own learning opportunities for life!
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Summer learning does not have to be in "packet form". As a teacher and a mom, summer learning can be as easy as actually reading the posted information out loud to your child while visiting the zoo or the museum. Have your child create a math story problem about the ants in your back yard. Keep summer learning active and fun. No teacher wants a child who is already experiencing burn out before the school year has begun!
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My boys really enjoy the Vacation Stations books from BJU Press. There are activities for each day of 10 weeks that take about 15 minutes to complete. They review the skills learned in the grade they completed, but seem more like puzzles and fun than work. Each grade level has a different theme like Wild West or the Beach. We love them and they're not very time consuming. We also kept Summer Reading Logs and were amazed by how many books we finished by the end of summer!
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I don't make my kids do activity packets over the summer and believe it or not, their brains have not turned to mush! We do take time to read those books we just can't seem to get to during the school year. We also participate in our library's reading program and a reading program sponsored by a local movie theater. But mostly I feel summertime is for playing outside and having fun being a kid.
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I also battle through summer reading, and workbooks, but to help make things more entertaining we do activities such as trivia balloon fights. Each kid has their own base, I ask one child at a time a question in their level and if they get it right they throw a ballon at me, if they get it wrong I get to throw a ballon at them. We also set up obstacle courses with trivia stops they have to get three questions right to move on and complete the course.
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my children have always attended private schools so I never realized that this was something not everyone does! Mychildren have always had math packets and summer reading (minimum 3 books) to read & do over the summer. Then when school starts back they have a test pver the books they read and have to turn in the math packet. I think it is a great way of staying up on what they have learned and the teachers don't have to spend so much time reviewing what everyone forgot over the summer break.
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